News

Obituary, Brian Phillips. 11 March 1960 - 27 March 2011

It is with great regret that we at Cheveley announce the sudden death of our founder and managing director, Brian Phillips.

Brian was one of the most respected experts in the field of antenna design in the United Kingdom. Fit and apparently healthy, and aged just 51, Brian, an ex National Team Trial Champion, was taking part in his favourite activity, a cycling event in Italy, when he collapsed.

In 1991 Brian Phillips founded his company, European Antennas Ltd, which became part of Cobham plc in 1999. Brian's experience in antenna design spans 30 years following his degree in Physics/Natural Sciences from Cambridge University. He designed hundreds of antennas from HF wire to the hugely diverse range of microwave antennas from his own company.

From small beginnings and with rapid growth, Brian took our business into a massive global market for antennas with customers including giants around the world including Thales, BAE Systems, QinetiQ and The Boeing Company.

Brian's outstanding technical skills were complemented by his managerial, leadership and financial acumen making him one of the outstanding business personalities in our industry.

The staff of European Antennas Ltd (Cobham Antenna Systems) are dedicated to the continuance of the business founded by their much loved leader, Brian Phillips.

Brian's intelligent wit and humour, with his kind, generous personality, has left a huge gap in the lives of his staff whose thoughts are with his family at this sad time.